It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.
When handling herding animals, and in particular cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, it is often required to herd them into a set of handling yards and often within the confines of those yards there are further smaller areas for segregating the herds into smaller, more manageable numbers. Often such yard installations contain a dedicated confined space for assisting the animal handler to group the animals into a tightly packed group to perform various animal handling operations, some examples of which are counting and loading the animals into vehicles, performance of animal husbandry operations, branding, veterinary treatments, visual inspection, sorting, selling, weighing, drafting, chemical treatments and other similar animal handling operations.
To aid the herder in managing such operations safely and moving the animals efficiently it is common practice and well known in the industry that animals will flow and move more constantly and with less stress when directed or corralled to travel in a consistent circular path or motion.
It is also common practice within such animal handling and herding operations to have within the boundaries of the animal holding yards or corals, a circular or semi-circular confined space known commonly by various names, some common examples being a circular force tub, force tub, circular force, crowd, crowding pen, and are called such due to their operational nature, construction and appearance. The said circular or semi-circular structures have a defined opening at one point in their circumference to allow the animals to enter the confined circular or semi-circular area and there is also provided a defined exit at another separate opening at some further point in the circumference of the structure to allow the animals to exit the confined circular or semi-circular area after they have moved in a circular motion around the central axis without interrupting the flow of the following entering animals. The structure is so designed with a separated entrance and exit to enable the continuous flow of animals to enter into the structure, circulate around within, and exit the structure, without coming into physical or visual contact with the other entering animals who are yet to be processed within the structure. The size of the outer circumference of the structures may vary in diameter to accommodate various numbers of animals within the confined circular, semi-circular area depending on the herd size and the numbers of animals regularly handled at each property. There are also commonly installed within the circular, semi-circular confined area at least one pivoting moveable barrier (gate), such moveable barrier pivots around the inner circular space created by the outer circular structure, providing a moveable separating barrier between the two groups of livestock. The said moveable barrier is generally sheeted or clad to prevent the animals from seeing through the moveable barrier and is generally made to such a height as to prevent the animals from jumping over the moveable barrier. The moveable barrier is capable of being locked to prevent the animals from pushing against the moveable barrier and moving it in a backwards direction within the confined circular, semi-circular enclosure. The moveable barrier operates in such a fashion to firstly allow the animals to enter the confined circular, semi-circular enclosure and when the appropriate number of animals are within the confined circular, semi-circular area so as to fill it, the moveable barrier will be rotated in the same direction as the desired movement of animal travel, moving in behind the animals and thereby creating a barrier behind the first segregated group of animals and in front of the second segregated group of animals. The moveable barrier will be moved by the operator to continue to follow behind the first group of animals, until they exit the confined circular, semi-circular area.
In some devices available on the market the moveable barrier is unable to rotate in a continuous 360 degree motion, in such cases the operator is required to reverse the direction of the moveable barrier back to the starting position so as to allow the second group of animals to enter into the circular, semi-circular area and repeat the operation again and again. In some instances the operator is required to be within the confines of the circular, semi-circular area to perform the actuation of the moveable barrier.
In some more expensive and motorised installations there is a second moveable barrier to prevent the animals from heading in the opposite direction of flow, towards the exit portion of the confined area. The second moveable barrier creates a variable sized wedge shaped exclusion zone within the circular, semi-circular area. Once the first allotted group have moved in a circular motion around the circumference they are able to see the exit portion of the confined area and begin to exit the confined circular, semi-circular area and the first moveable barrier continues to rotate behind the animals to such an extent that it then moves past the exit opening and approaches the second moveable barrier which is normally situated at the commencement of the entry opening.
In these installations once the first moveable barrier moves past the furthest portion of the exit opening and all the animals have exited the confined area, the second moveable barrier then begins to move in the same direction as the intended animal flow and follows the path of the first moveable barrier, the first moveable barrier then moves into the original position of the second moveable barrier located at the commencement of the entry opening, thereby blocking off access to the exit portion for the incoming animals, and the second moveable barrier continues to move in a circular motion to follow the path of the first moveable barrier. This sequence is intended to be a continuous action allowing separated groups of animals to enter, move around the confined circular, semi-circular area and exit into another section of the yards without the possibility of them reversing direction once they are contained within the circular, semi-circular enclosure. The moveable barriers can be prevented from travelling in a backwards direction for operator safety and to ensure animals cannot move in an unintended direction.
Such confined circular, semi-circular structures are regularly constructed of materials strong enough to withstand the forces exerted on them by the animals when crowded and confined into the circular, semi-circular area. Such structures commonly have curved internally clad walls to prevent the animals from being distracted by movement outside the enclosed area or providing the animal with what they may consider as other potential paths of travel. The walls and moveable barriers are constructed to a suitable height to safely contain the animals and prevent them from jumping over the walls of the structure.
There are also commonly constructed (radial) supporting struts which emanate horizontally and then downwardly from the central axis of the said circular, semi-circular area, force tub, circular force, crowd or crowding pen structure, at a height well above the animals, such struts connect at regular intervals around the exterior walls that define the outer circumference of the confined circular, semi-circular area to provide structural support to the external walls to eliminate any potential collapsing of the structure due to significant animal pressure being exerted on the walls when the animals are forced into the confined area.
For many various reasons the animals regularly stop “flowing” in the intended direction as described above. Further, they can stop moving all together, and in both scenarios the operator is then required to encourage and, in some instances, force the animals to keep moving in the intended forward direction. This is most often accomplished by the operator entering into the animal zone behind a moveable barrier in the confined circular, semi circular area and then directly pushing the moveable barrier behind the animals and forcing them forwards in the intended direction. In other situations the operator may be required to stand outside the circular, semi-circular area wherein the said moveable barrier is located, and lean over the top perimeter wall of the circular, semi-circular area and manually force the moveable barrier in the intended direction to encourage or force the animals to move in the intended direction. Both these operations are dangerous to the operator as they are required to be situated amongst the animals or lean over the perimeter wall of the circular, semi-circular area and potentially be caught or wedged between the moveable barrier and one of the many supporting struts connected to the perimeter of the circular, semi-circular structure.
If the operator is required to get into the animal zone to force the moveable barrier in the intended direction as described above, such action significantly slows down the desired flowing effect of the animals as the following animals are baulked and stop flowing into the confined circular, semi-circular area upon seeing a person within their immediate environment.
There are alternative systems available that use various types of pneumatic and hydraulic motors to drive the moveable barriers continuously in a 360 degree motion, which can eliminate the need for operators to be physically situated in the animal zone to actuate the moveable barrier. However, these systems are very expensive and are rarely cost efficient for smaller operators.